Burnside High School

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Burnside High School (Waimairi-iri)
Motto	Recte Sic Dirige Cursum - Thus direct thy path aright (In this way direct your course correctly)
Type	State Secondary School (years 9 through 13)
Year established	1960
Address	Greers Road, Burnside, Christchurch
Coordinates
Principal	Ron Noordijk[1]
School roll	2588
Socio-economic decile (10 is highest)	8^[1]
Ministry of Education Institution no.	319
Website	www.burnside.school.nz

Burnside High School (BHS) (Called Waimairi-iri in Maori) is the second largest high school in New Zealand with over 2600 students, and is located in the suburb of Burnside in Christchurch, New Zealand.

1 Academics
2 History
3 Notable Alumni
4 Structure
5 Motto, Crest and Colours
6 Grounds and Facilities
7 Notes
8 External links

[edit] Academics

Consisting of over 2,650 students, Burnside High School is rated as a decile eight school[2], and retains many of its students through to Year 13, where most of these students then go on to tertiary education.

The school uses the NCEA assessment system for Years 11 through 13, with a Not Achieved (NA), Achieve (A), Merit (M) or Excellence (E) grade.

[edit] History

Main article: History of Burnside High School

[edit] Notable Alumni

Hayley Westenra, a prominent New Zealand pop singer
John Key, leader of the National Party
Andrew Ellis, a New Zealand All Black

[edit] Structure

The school is split into four divisions to ease management. These are named North, South, West and Senior, the first three consisting of students from Years 9-12 (Equivalent Grade 8 - 11) and Senior division consisting of only Year 13 (Grade 12) students. Each division has an assigned guidance counsellor, two deans and a divisional principal and, in addition, Senior Division also includes a careers advisor. In addition, the school also has a Principal, Second Principal, Assistant Principal and 13 Heads of Department for the numerous subject areas.

The idea of divisions effectively means, while each student belongs to the school, they are part of a 'smaller school' to help better individual care and attention to students. When a student enrolls, they are assigned to a division, either randomly or to that of their siblings if they, too, are attending.

To aid the idea of individuals within the school, each staff member is expected to know the name of each student they interact with, a decision made by the school right from the outset

[edit] Motto, Crest and Colours

The school's motto is Recte Sic Dirige Cursum, which literally means 'Thus direct thy path aright', or the better translation 'In this way direct your course correctly'

The school's crest is a cabbage tree, due to the historic importance of a group of cabbage palms situated on the school grounds. These trees were used as an important landmark by Maori travellers before European settlement of Canterbury.

The school's main uniform colours are green and white.

[edit] Grounds and Facilities

The school has well-equipped facilities to cope with its 2600+ population, consisting of 14 blocks containing usable classrooms, labeled alphabetically A through M, and X, a multi-million dollar Library and Administration Building (also containing a Sick Bay and Student Office), three gyms, a pool, a canteen (similar to the serving part of a cafeteria), an auditorium capable of seating 750 people, and numerous sports fields and courts situated on the grounds, which are a total of 16.2 hectares (40 acres) in size.

There are certain classroom blocks which have large parts allocated for certain purposes. These include X Block, largely dedicated to computing, and holding the central virtualization server, and routers for the school, M Block for the extensive Music department (though containing a small, purpose-built Drama theatre), G Block for Art (including a fully-equipped Dark Room), H Block largely for Languages, D Block for mathematics (including most of D Block extension), L Block for learning support, C Block for Craft, Wood/Metalwork and Cooking, upstairs I Block for Sciences, downstairs I Block for English, and F Block for Senior students (Y13)

In addition, the school has implemented a school-broadcast system designed as an Armed Intruder Lockdown Scheme for the unlikely, but altogether possible, event of a Virginia-Tech style school shooting, which informs teachers, and students alike, off an armed intruder, and safety measures to be taken to ensure classrooms and buildings are locked down for safety.